Starlit Sky 11: Small Expectations
by warriorfreak
Summary: Sequel to A Well Trodden Path Robinflight meets somebody, an strange one with a odd like to him. Meanwhile, he fights with Cora for the first time in his life, and must deal with the loss of one of his best friends...and another death. C 2008 warriorfreak
1. Chapter 1: Hunter and Prey

**Ok, everyone remember that all the main characters are a year older. Selena and Robinflight are still fourteen, of course, because they just turned that age, but Cora and Mac are twelve and so on.**

**The Pack**

**Alpha**- _Robinflight_- 14 year old boy with dark brown hair and dark, bright blue eyes; huge black bat wings

**Followers**- _Selena_- long dark brown haired girl and amber eyes; reflective green/black dragon wings; 14 years old

_Shadowflight_- long hair and pale skin; bright, dark green eyes and huge black bat wings, 23 years old, female.

_Cora_- Asian girl with shoulder length black hair, chocolate brown eyes and pale tan skin; ginger sparrow wings and 12 years old

_Mac- _auburn haired boy with hazel eyes, grey osprey wings; 12 years old

_Steve_- 14 year old boy with greasy black shoulder length hair, wingless, dark eyes.

_Sylvester_- 14 year old boy with blond, long hair, pteranadon wings, hazel eyes.

**Other Characters**

_Jack_- pale skinned man with dark brown hair and pale green eyes, about 34 years old.

_Time_- Pale 14 year old robot girl with long black hair and red eyes; golden/black/green dragon wings

_Harry_- A thickset 35 year old man with pale, short brown hair, brown eyes, blotched skin

_Alexa- _12 and a half year old girl with tan skin, black eyes, wingless, hazel/black hair.

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_**Chapter 1, Hunter and Prey  
**_

There is a place where dark trees come down and almost touch the water. A tiny bank, strewn with broken logs and kelp fills their distance from each other.

The lake is a sticky, smelly place—a place where most do not want to be. The other side of this body of water is better, but dangerous. A steep, grassy hill, strewn with trees, comes down before it falls away into a huge, jagged black cliff. Bits of tough, torn grass cling to the sparse soil on the cliff. Water sprays against it. There is only one ledge on it, coming from the side of the cliff and pointing up. The ledge hides a cave that begins at the base of it.

The cave grows larger as it goes farther in, and ends abruptly. The floor is damp, and full of cobwebs.

The sun sets like fire, almost gone behind the horizon.

A pale figure stumbles along the small bank, its clothes torn to almost shreds. It wines piteously, scared by the haunting night sounds.

She felt terror, and she fell. The moonlight was bleaching her darker skin, so she looked like a glass mutant. As she looked up, a huge eagle circled thirty feet overhead, looking at her, hunting her. It swooped away, and she ran for the trees. There were eyes watching her, following her progress through the woods.

She searched for a place to hide for the night, and found a huge bush torn up, a small, hollow shelter at the base of its branches. She tripped foreword, falling into it. She pulled up to the scraggly strips and started to circle. Her hand gently touched some leaves, and she rested her head on the soft spot. She lay for a second, and began to feel something creeping up her neck, circling around it. She slowly raised her hand to the spot. Something struck, tightening hard around her throat. She screamed; it was cut off as she gasped for breath. She jerked up, but was not able to go any farther then two feet from the ground.

She wrenched a hand to her neck, and at first felt nothing, until her fingers grazed something cold and hard. She grabbed it, but was unable to lift it from her neck. It was a silver wire, cutting into her skin.

She rasped for breath, and her eyes followed the wire toward the ground. It was staked to a hard iron peg, thrust hard into the ground. Her fingers grasped at it, but it made no movement. It was locked into place.

"Help!" she whispered, her air squeezing through her throat, "help!'

Nobody heard her. She twisted around, trying to loosen the wire, but it did not give in the slightest. She flopped down, panting and gasping for breath. She closed her eyes and rested, feeling the strand hard and mean, wrapped around her throat.


	2. Chapter 2: Rescued

_**Chapter 2, Rescued**_

She pried open her eyes. She had not slept, but she had tried to let her mind wander, so it was not fixed on the wire around her neck.

She began to thrash about, flopping down on one side of the peg or the other. Panting and gasping for air. She would rest for about ten seconds before she started thrashing again. She began to kick, feeling like the wire was tightening. She gave a silent scream, and moved like a blur.

"Hey! Are you ok---What's wrong?"

She barely heard the whisper, but was sure someone was speaking to her when a hand was wrenched to her shoulder and she was pressed to the ground. She was sure that something had come to eat her, and she screamed hoarsely.

"You- hey, wait-you've get a wire around your neck. You've been snared."

She opened her eyes and squinted into the trees swirling above her. A face, with brown hair flopping into its eyes, swam into view.

"Who're you….??" She rasped in confusion.

"That's not important. You look seriously hurt. You've been caught in an animal trap. Soon you're going to die. Here, I'm going to go get help."

She watched him run off. There was silence, then a bird swooped above the trees.

A second later five people approached her. One was an older girl, about fourteen, another was the boy from earlier, there was a dark younger girl, and then two boys, one with blond hair and one with black.

"Cora- can you dig it out?" the first boy asked the dark, younger girl.

"I'll try." She scraped at the ground hard.

"The ground's like a rock," she said. The blond and black haired boys took there turn, and she saw they were digging at the iron peg.

"We got somewhere," said the black hair. "We deg a small scrape."

The older girl knelt down and deg hard. There were periodic jerks around her neck.

"What's your name?" she first boy asked her.

"Alexa," she whispered.

"Good. I'm Robinflight. Selena! Look! It tapers!" he had abruptly turned his attention to the digging girl.

"Yeah." The digging girl, whose name was apparently Selena, said. "It's almost out. I think it's barbed at the end. Big barbs too." She glanced at Alexa and smiled.

Alexa panted hard, feeling a rush of heat. She began to squirm and pull. Blood trickled from her mouth, staining the ground. She yanked at the wire, feeling it tighten harder and harder around her throat. Her tongue lolled from her mouth, drenched in blood.

Robinflight leaped at the iron peg, and hooked something around it. He grunted while, pulling, and it wobbled.

Alexa pulled away from the peg, salivating at the mouth.

Robinflight gave the peg a hard yank, and it popped out.

Alexa's breath caught in her throat as the wire's tightness peaked. Then it sprung from her, leaving her neck numb and ringing with pain. She stopped panting and pulling and saw still.

"It's out," Robinflight panted. He squatted down and leaned a hand on his leg.

"Its way loose," Said Sylvester.

"Hey-Alexa? We got the peg out. You're free." Cora muttered.

Alexa was still, her eyes squeezed closed, her mouth open, coated in dried blood.

"She…she died?" Selena whispered.

They all watched Alexa.

She shuddered and cracked open her eyes. She started choking, coughing up blood, She ducked out of the wire. "Thank you." She told Robinflight. She rubbed her throat, which had a dark line going all around it.

"Why are you here?" Robinflight began.

"Later," Cora told him, "Let's get her up to the cave, where she can rest."

"But our wings…" Selena put in.

"She won't care."

They swarmed around Alexa, who pulled herself up to look at them. "What now?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"We're going to fly you off."

"Fly? How?" Alexa asked.

"We have wings," Robinflight said, "Who do you want to lift you off?"

"You," She said, pointing at him. Robinflight grabbed her arm and lifted his wings. The pack rose in a great swarm, over the treetops and across the lake.

Alexa's arm was being held on tightly by Robinflight. She was usually a fearless girl, so she looked down at the blue, rippling water. She had stayed in the snare overnight, so now the sun was just over the mountainous horizon.

Robinflight gave a hawk scream and swooped upward. He neared the cliff area. Alexa stared hard at the ledge. Perched on top of it was a thin person with a narrow face and cold green eyes. Its wings, tattered and well-used, hung off its back.

"Who's that?" Alexa asked. Robinflight glanced at the demon-creature. "Her name's Shadowflight, and she isn't dangerous."

Shadowflight swiveled her head after Alexa as they went into the cave.

Alexa looked around the sandy room.

Robinflight folded up his wings, and walked to one end of the cave. He wasn't suspicious of Alexa, he assumed she was some unlucky camper, lost in the forest.

Selena sat alone on the opposite side of the cave. Robinflight had noticed she was spending time with no one, after Willow had died.

"This is Cora," Robinflight introduced them in turn, watching Alexa's gaze move toward the Asian girl. They both smiled at each other.

"This is Mac," Alexa turned to look at the small boy crouching down with his wings wrapped around him for warmth. He glanced up at her, smiled and then tucked his head away.

"Cora and Mac are both twelve."

"I'm twelve too," Alexa put in, "I'll be thirteen in August."

What August was, Robinflight did not know. Alexa caught his confused look and said, "The end of the summer."

"I see. Cora and Mac will be thirteen in early spring of next year. Their birthday (AN: Which is on the same day) happened just two weeks ago."

"Ok." Alexa said.

"These to boys are Steve and Sylvester," Robinflight continued, "They aren't related. As you can see, Steve has no wings, but like the rest of us, he has sharp teeth and claws.

"And this is Selena. She's fourteen. I'm fourteen too."

Alexa looked at both Robinflight and Selena. "Is she your girlfriend?" she asked Robinflight.

Robinflight and Selena looked shocked with embarrassment.

"No." Robinflight said, "She's not. We're just the same age."  
"Where do you come from?" Selena asked the tan-skinned girl sharply.

"New Mexico." She said proudly, "My parents went camping in these pretty Montana woods for a spring vacation. I was learning about wolves, and how they only harm you if you threaten them. They came by our camping spot. My dad had bought a gun and he shot down the alpha's mate. We were screaming. The alpha attacked, and so did the rest of the pack. My dad was killed first. My mother…she has a baby, she ran off. My two brothers and my sister tried to defend me, because they're all older then me, but they went down one at a time. I ran off.

"I tried to follow my mom, but she had left no trail except a piece of the baby's blanket, which I picked up." Alexa reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of baby blue cloth. "I thought it was a trail, but it wasn't."

Everyone was quiet.

"I'm missing school, but I don't care. Did you know my highest grade was only a B-?"  
None of the pack seemed to know what that was.

"Well, that's it. To your business now." She turned away and everyone started to do normal pack activity.

"Hey, want to do something?" Robinflight watched Mac call over to Alexa. She nodded and trotted over.

Another movement caught his eye. It was Cora. She was frowning as Mac called to Alexa, and then when Alexa came over to him, Cora turned around with a swish of her black hair. She busied herself by angrily stacking up some leftover meat.

Robinflight shrugged it off, knowing that Cora had always been rather close to Mac, and seeing him playing with someone else had to be hard for her. Cora got along with everybody, but Mac was her only real _close_ friend.

Robinflight jumped outside of the cave. He greeted Shadowflight, and she snapped her teeth in reply, her way of saying 'hello.' Robinflight jumped down onto the base of the ledge, then took off from there.

"Where's Robinflight?" Alexa asked Selena.

"He went out."

Alexa left so fast she made a breeze that flapped Selena's hair.

Nobody could miss the furious look on Cora's face as she disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3: Voices

_**Chapter 3, Voices**_

Robinflight slid down to the ground and started to walk across the soft bank. He heard a shout from behind him and whirled around. It was Alexa, jumping down to him.

"Hello, Robinflight! Where're you going?"

"I'm getting some food. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah I am!" she said, jumping with excitement, "Are we going to a Subway or a McDonalds?"

"What? No, I'm going to hunt down a deer or something."

"Ew, weird. Do I have to eat it?"

Alexa went on and on. Robinflight tuned her out most of the time, and silenced her when he came across a deer, grazing with its fawn.

"It's so cute!" Alexa gasped out in a whisper.

"SHH!" he motioned to her and then crept up to it slowly.

"Are you going to kill it?" She whispered.

He didn't answer.

Then he killed it.

XXX

Robinflight returned later with the deer and flung it down on the floor. Alexa dashed over to Mac. Cora ran over to the deer and tore, with great force, a hunk of raw meat from the shoulder.

Robinflight took his own share and went over to her, sitting down.

"Oh hello Robinflight!" she said in a voice full of forced happiness, sounding very un-Cora-like.

"Uh…Hi Cora…" He said. Where was that sensitive, quiet girl he always got when he spoke to her?

"How are things?" She said loudly and forcefully.

"Good…"

Over beside Mac, Alexa noticed Cora, "Wow, she's sure loud. Is she hard of hearing?"

The young, auburn-haired boy looked shocked and a little hurt, "No…Actually, I don't know why she's talking like that. Usually she's pretty quiet."

"She's weird," Alexa flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder and then paraded over to Robinflight.

Cora looked up instantly. "Go away," she snapped at the Hispanic girl, "You don't need to intrude on everything, you know."

"Well, I'm not intruding, so like, get over it," Alexa snapped back, marching off with her head high.

"She doesn't like you," Robinflight observed.

"_I_ don't like_ her_!" Cora said, "She acts like she's five, and then like she's sixteen."

_Oh boy…_

"Someone's grouchy," he said, raising his eyebrows and shaking his intruding hair from his eyes.

"I'm not grouchy, I'm just ticked off!" Cora yelled. The Asian girl got up, tossing her meat on the floor. Then she left the cave.

Robinflight shrugged, tossing his meat at Cora's. He decide to go and talk to Selena, who he hadn't even seen much of in the past few days.

"Selena?" he asked, squatting down beside her.

She turned around quickly, swatting him accidentally with her hair.

"Oh sorry Robinflight. I didn't know you were right there."

"Are you going to eat?"

"Well, I'm not really very hungry…"

"You haven't eaten for days."

"Fine then!"

He got up and tore some meat for her, thinking about how she wasn't acting very Selena-ish, and how he missed her old self…why had she changed?

He threw the meat to her but did not return to her side. She was thinking about something, but what?

He glanced at her. Her head was cocked, and she was staring blankly at the wall, she seemed to be listening intently. She looked up and her eyes widened a little.

Robinflight moved over to her. "Selena?"

She did not answer for a second.

Then she looked up at him.

"I can hear voices in my head."


	4. Chapter 4: Changes Unknown

_**Chapter 4, Changes Unknown**_

"You can hear…voices? Inside your head?"

"Yes…I think so. But they're muttering…I can't hear them very well…I don't know what they're saying. People though- definitely people talking. I only realized a few weeks ago that they're there. It seems to slowly get louder and louder."

"I don't know about it, but it might be important, so I'll be aware of it."

He gazed out of the den. "Where's Shadowflight?"

"I don't know." Selena said. She glanced up then stared into space.

Robinflight shrugged it off.

XXX

Robinflight awoke in the night. Shadowflight had still not returned. He stood up and left the cave, flying across the lake and landing on the sandy, smelly bank on the other side.

"Shadowflight?" he called quietly.

He heard an eagle scream and he looked up as Shadowflight stumbled down beside him. She shook out her thick, curly, long hair and stood up next to him.

"Where were you? You usually give a warning before you leave," Robinflight told him mother.

"I've been somewhere," she said and started to walk quickly away.

"Wait! Come back!" He said, "Why were you so late returning?"

"Stuff…" she snapped her jaws at him like he was a pestering fly.

"Talk to me like I'm human!" he gasped to her, "We aren't animals!"

She froze and turned, her long hair falling past her face. She shook it away. "Fine then!" She hissed, and instantly launched in, "I was going to get some dumpster trash to eat. I was approaching a dumpster and I…um…slipped. Someone helped me up. I look at him and he just says, "My name's Ben." I stare. He asks my name and I say, "Shadowflight." He says nice to meet you and then he asks if I could meet him tomorrow night. I just said "I guess." He gave me the place then left."

Robinflight stared at her. "But you're not going."  
"Sure I am! Why wouldn't I?"

"Well because…I mean…because well….I…I don't understand why he asked you!! Maybe he's a Timer in disguise? WHY?" He gasped out.

"Maybe he's just weird. I mean, I don't know why he asked me to meet him either. All he did was help me up, and I didn't tell him I was about to eat from the dumpster. He had all kinds of fancy clothes on. It was weird."

Her dark green eyes searched his blue ones.

Then she started to move off and he followed a little behind her, wanting to tell her about Alexa and Cora, and Selena hearing voices, and all those other things, but…

He didn't. He couldn't.

Robinflight didn't even think she would understand. She was so weird.

He jumped into the cave while Shadowflight took her roost outside of it.

Everybody was asleep. Alexa slept near Mac, and Cora was away from everyone. Robinflight crouched down, surveying them all. He then lay down beside Selena, stretching out his long legs and crossing them.

XXX

"So…are you going to meet.What's his face…Ben?"

"Yes. How do I look?" Shadowflight spun to face her son.

She was wearing a green dress, sleeveless, that had been obviously stitched in many places; Alexa's proud work.

"You look good," Robinflight said.

"We should comb your hair," said Alexa excitedly. She began to run her fingers through Shadowflight's wild black hair, until it was a tiny, tiny bit calmer.

Robinflight felt emotions he could not identify run through his veins as Shadowflight hid her wings and left. He stared at her. Something major had changed, but he didn't know what.

He flew back to the den.

Cora came over to him. "Why are you hanging out with her?"

"She's my mother!" he said, shocked and Cora's bluntness.

"No, I mean Alexa."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"She's mean!"

"She is?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is! You'd know that if she actually acted real around you." Cora said indignantly, crossing her arms.

"She doesn't act real?"

"Yeah, she acts fake to get you to like her! You should like someone else! Like…" She tilted her head to stare at him.

"Cora," he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yes," she retorted, her voice rising, "Why wouldn't I be?"  
"You're just never this angry and blunt."

She snorted. "Whatever." She rolled her eyes and then banged into his shoulder, hard, as she passed.

_What's gotten into her?_ Robinflight wondered.


	5. Chapter 5: Nefasti, Alexa and Ben

_**Chapter 5, Nefasti, Alexa and Ben**_

"Are you still hearing the voices inside your head?" Robinflight asked, passing the nervous time away while Shadowflight was gone.

Selena glanced up at him. "Yes, I have, and I've been trying to make sense of it. I think I've gotten a little done. I don't think it's English, or at least most of it isn't."

"Why?"

"Well, I've been able to make out these words: Nefasti, talachi, feadrea and meelay. That's not English, right?"

"Not how I know it," he responded.

"Well I hear nefasti the most. I don't know why, but I think it means something important, at least."

"Is that all?"

"No! Then it goes into this thing that I think might be English, but all sped up. I can hear male voices talking, but they talk in these high, squeaky voices as if they've been sped up. I can't hear any of those words yet…not at all."

He started to stand up. "I don't know, Selena. Maybe these voices mean something and maybe they don't."

"Are you going to go look to see if Shadowflight's back yet?" Selena asked him as he began to leave.

"Well, she can't be back yet, but I'll at least wait for her."

XXX

And Robinflight did wait. He lay on the cave, staring out at the lake, waiting for his mother's return and yet fearing the worst had happened to her.

"Hey, Robinflight, what's up?" Alexa came and flopped down beside him. He sat up from his slouch and looked at her. "What?"

"Never mind. It's just something we say. So, what's going on?"

"I'm waiting for Shadowflight."

"Why? Is she your mom?"

"Yeah."

"I thought so." Alexa started to fiddle with grains of sand. "So, is she dating now?"

"Um…" Robinflight had no idea what dating meant.

"Like, going out?" Alexa asked.

"Well, yes, she's going out by leaving the den."

"No I mean with a dude."

"Uh….?"

"A man. Is she going out with a man?"

"You mean, like meeting him?"

"Yes!"

"Well this is the first time, they don't really know each other, I guess."

"Huh. Ok."

Alexa leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Do you like Cora?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, she's mean. She shouts and stuff and flies off the handle. I don't like her. You shouldn't like her. You should like somebody else, like…."  
He looked at her, not daring to say that Cora had said the same about her.

"Well, we've known each other for a while," Robinflight said, "And we're good friends."

"Well don't hang out with her," Alexa said, getting up. She added over her shoulder as she walked away: "Don't talk to her either."

Something was happening between Alexa and Cora. What?

The moon rose. Robinflight flew to the other side of the lake, and waited.

Shadowflight landed.

He dashed over to her. "What happened?"

Shadowflight chewed the inside of her mouth, looking thoughtful. She walked slowly, Robinflight at her side.

"I met Ben. He took me to a…restaurant. It was weird, not like the one Robin took me to. No animals. No Micemorsel. But it was good. I got a steak. He wanted to talk to me while I ate, which was weird, because I was starving."

"And?" Robinflight prompted.

"Well, he said he was 31, and had gone to some weird university thing. He said he had no mate and was looking for someone to be with forever. It was weird. I asked who he was looking for, you know, I could send out a search party. He looked kinda confused."

Robinflight glanced away, knowing what Shadowflight didn't. He was looking for a soul mate, not some certain lost person. But he didn't tell her that.

"He said he wanted to meet me again, I said sure, and then he asked about me. I said my name was Shadowflight. I said I had a son. He asked who. I said, his name's Robinflight and he's fourteen. He asked who the father was. I said he died. Then he said something else."

"What?" Robinflight asked instantly.

"He wants to meet you."

**So who is this new person, Benn? Who do you think? Also, sorry Ben wasn't in the character list at the beginning, he JUST popped up as a new character. Harry is someone else, equally important, who comes in later, but soon. Thanks to Sparrowflight, Raynefyre, Stardawn and Steeltalon for reviewing! I guess I still have readers! Thanks everyone now REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6: Nothing's Right

_**Chapter 6, Nothing's Right**_

"He wants to…meet me?" Robinflight gasped. Shadowflight nodded slowly.

"Yes," she said, "Tomorrow night."

Robinflight's heart beat hard and he took a deep breath to calm himself. "Ok…" he muttered.

Shadowflight flew across the lake. He followed her on silent wings.

She roosted outside the cave, while he went inside. Alexa was sleeping beside Mac. Selena was alone, as well as Cora. Steve and Sylvester had hunkered against the wall.

The morning came. Everyone awoke slowly, and Robinflight didn't get up until everyone was awake.

Selena scrambled over toward him. "Robinflight, I've figured out a few words of it. I think Kijaku is a name! Because one person in my head said: Kijaku? And then a different voice went: Yanack? I think yanack is 'yes' and Kijaku is a name!"

"Good! Try to find out-,"

"-What Nafasti means." Selena interrupted and then finished for him. Robinflight was going to say, "What the rest means."  
"Ok. Whatever. Keep listening." He told her then walked off.

XXX

"Robinflight!" Shadowflight hissed excitedly, "It's time to go!"

"Oh…Okay." He said quietly, nervousness churning within him.

"We'll fly, but walk a little before we get there so he doesn't know we have wings. Come on." Shadowflight said. They opened their wings with a whoosh of air and flew across the crystalline lake.

Robinflight enjoyed the feeling of getting airborne, following a little behind Shadowflight as she flew over the forests. He watched the trees flash by beneath him, and the occasional body of water.

The trees thinned out to farmland. That went on for about thirty miles, and then houses dotted the area. As they neared, it became a city. There is no better way of watching land develop then seeing it from the sky.

They flew higher as towering sky scrapers entered their view. Robinflight winced in the smell of exhaust.

"Over here." Shadowflight whispered. She dropped toward the ground, pulling her wings in before she hit, and landing smoothly. He copied her.

"By this dumpster." She muttered, "That's where we meet him." She looked around, "Oh, he's late."

He felt queasy, and leaned against the dirty side of the dumpster.

"There he is!" Shadowflight whispered, gripping him arm. She pointed at a tall figure coming toward them.

The figure stopped in front of Shadowflight. He was tall, at least six and a half feet, without any facial hair. He was wearing a fancy suit, with a tie hanging down from the neck.

Robinflight started to pant with a closed mouth, hyperventilating. It felt like sweat was pouring down his face. He wanted to crawl underneath the dumpster and leave. Fright glazed his eyes.

"Good evening, Shadowflight," Said Ben in a deep, polished voice. "How are things? Is this your son?"  
Shadowflight nodded. Ben's head turned to Robinflight.

He felt like he was butter, melting in the skillet, as Ben's dark eyes surveyed him. His heart beat harder and he gasped for breath. Ben looked back at Shadowflight.

"Excellent." He said. "Follow, please," he turned toward a restaurant.

Robinflight watched Shadowflight as they followed Ben toward the building. Her eyes were bright with excitement as she stared through the doors of the restaurant. She licked her lips loudly.

Robinflight felt a pain and opened his hands to see that his claws had been piercing into his palm so hard there was blood. His eyes screwed up with irritation and he sucked on the wound.

"You two first." Ben said, opening the door for them. Robinflight followed Shadowflight in.

The room was hot, full of the smells of food. The air was full of people talking and soft background music.

Robinflight grabbed Shadowflight's wrist and dug his fingers into her skin.

"To…many…people…" he whispered in a hardly audible voice so Ben couldn't hear. She nodded ever so slightly, barely inclining his head.

The three of them followed the waitress to a table with booths.

Robinflight sat down closest to the wall, with Shadowflight next to him. He began to hyperventilate again, feeling trapped.

Ben sat across from them. He looked through the weird paper thing. Robinflight read 'menu' across the top. Whatever that was.

He saw that both Shadowflight and Ben were looking through the 'menus,' and he instantly copied them, remembering dimly that his mother could not read.

"What does it say, Robinflight?" She asked in a whisper.

"Let's uh…see." The fourteen year old boy could barely read, but he could sound out things.

"Well uh…fried meat plate…and-,"

"I want the fried meat plate." Shadowflight interrupted, before he even said the other things on the menu.

"Ok," said Ben, "What about drinks? How does this sound: I'll order something fancy for everyone."

Robinflight nodded his head, not even quite sure what he was agreeing to.

Ben told the waitress something and she left. He turned toward them.

"So," he asked, "What are your last names? Flight?"  
"No," Shadowflight said, "We're Robinflight and Shadowflight Silverbone." She stepped hard on Robinflight's foot, forcing him to go along with the lie. Robinflight nodded unhelpfully.

"I'm Ben Copperfield." He said.

Ben turned to Robinflight and he bit the inside of his mouth to keep from loosing his head.

"So, are you fourteen?" the man asked. Robinflight nodded hard.

"Are you dating anyone?" He went on.

Robinflight shook his head, knowing what dating meant from Alexa.

Ben looked mild. "Interesting. My sister has a daughter who's fourteen too."

What was Robinflight supposed to say to that? He settled with a nervous, "nice."

"So, what did your father die of?" Ben asked him.

Both Shadowflight and Robinflight must have thought that saying: "An angry cat put him under a rock fall," sounded kind of strange to a human. If Ben had been an animal, Robinflight would have easily said the truth, but instead he settled with:

"Murdered," and then whished he had said 'sickness.'

"Murdured! By whom?" Asked Ben, his dark eyebrows rising in shock.

"We don't know," Shadowflight answered for him, "we just found him dead."

"By golly. People these days can be so cruel."

"Yeah," Shadowflight and Robinflight said at the same time.

"Where do you two live?"

_In the dark forests of Montana, with a pack of wild, hungry, winged kids, living off raw meat and our own wits, because we can't fit in anywhere else. _Said a voice in Robinflight's head.

"In a little cabin by a lake," Shadowflight said, grinning toothily.

"Ah. I live in the suburbs. Your view must me much prettier then mine."

_Not really. Often you see Timers swarming from the sky holding guns.  
_Robinflight whished the little voice would shut up.

"Yeah, it's great." He lied.

The drinks came. A glass of fancy, fizzy red stuff was placed in front of Robinflight. He peered into it, and politely let it fill his mouth. When no one was looking, he promptly spit it back into his cup.

There was more talk, mostly between Shadowflight and Ben. Robinflight pondered random stuff, imagining what it would be like to always hear voices in your head, like Selena could.

Then the food was placed on their table. Something weird for Ben and a meat plate each for Robinflight and his mother.

He looked at his food. Six huge slabs of different kinds of meat. His eyes glowed, and without eating, he began to eat it. It was different then anything he had ever tasted, like meat but duller, more sweet, less wild. Blood did not dribble down his chin when he took a bite. He liked it uncooked better.

Robinflight finished then licked his plate. More talk. And more.

Finally Ben concluded it with, "Meet me again, tomorrow night." He then stood up to go to the 'restroom', brushing Shadowflight's head with his hand as he passed.

"I don't like him." Robinflight said a little while after he left. "I think he's…too good."

She looked at him, not angry. "I'm not sure either. And I don't know what he wants from us."


	7. Chapter 7: Welcome to my World

_**Chapter 7, Welcome to my World**_

Ben returned a moment later, and then walked them out the door. Robinflight was not hyperventilating now, he felt more like…angry, but he didn't know why.

"See you around-," Ben began, but Shadowflight interrupted.

"ROBINFLIGHT! RUN!"

Robinflight whirled around, his body on alert.

"DUCK!" she screamed. He ducked low, flattening himself to the ground, as shadowed creatures swooped over him, on tattered bird wings.

They had come back.

Timers.

Shadowflight grabbed his hand, yanking him up. All this time, Ben watched, stunned.

"Behind you!" she told her son. He whirled around, sinking his teeth into the shoulder of a Timer. A groan left it and it sunk to the ground.

"_Mur_der!" Ben gasped, "Who are these thugs?"

"People!" Robinflight gasped, "I mean…mutants!" He whirled around, ready to attack another, and then stopped.

Someone was standing at the edge of the parking lot.

"Who are you?" he called. All he could see was a shadow.

The person walked foreword, coming into view.

"Selena? What are you doing here?"

"The voices-they said." Selena whispered.

"In your head?"

"Yes."

She grabbed a Timer by the neck without looking at it, throwing it to the ground.

A Timer ran up to Ben, holding its gun to its face.

"Ben, get out of here!" Robinflight shouted at him.

"No, I need to help you! This is an attack! Let me get the police." He pulled out a cell phone.

Robinflight made a wild dash for him, but a Timer grabbed onto his back and started scratching him hard.

"Nice work, scratching post," it hissed.

Robinflight made a lunge for Ben, and missed as the Timer pulled him back.

"Don't…call…the…police!" He gasped out. Ben looked up, "No, I'm sure they can handle this situation." He began to punch in a number.

Fury engulfed him. He tore his wings from underneath his shirt, ripping the talons across the Timer's face. He bounded foreword, grabbing the cell phone. The only problem was, Ben held onto it.

"GIVE!" The fourteen year old boy bellowed.

"I'm afraid that I must call the-,"

Robinflight bit his arm so the phone dropped onto the ground. Without a moment of hesitation, Robinflight pounded it into the pavement with his foot.

"I don't understand…" Ben muttered.

There was a sharp bang that rang around the city, with an answering _thock_. The Timers had fired at something and hit their target.

Robinflight abandoned Ben, trying to see what was going on. Timers were everywhere. He spotted Shadowflight, unharmed but—

"SELENA?" He bellowed.

No answer. Robinflight ran foreword. He spotted blood on the sidewalk, a whole dark wash of it. Dropping down, he scanned it. Human blood. Timer blood was pinker.

Robinflight grabbed a Timer by the neck, ignoring Ben's: "Release that man, Robinflight!" and he hoisted the wolf man up.

"What did you do to her, you scurvy scoundrel?" Robinflight whispered into its face, holding his claws up to its neck.

"Me? I-I didn't! Not me!"

"Well you saw didn't you?" Robinflight hissed, twiddling the claws slightly.

"No! I didn't-I-,"

"DO NOT LIE!" he bellowed, piercing the claws in. The Timer squeaked with fear and started shaking.

"NO! I did see, I mean. Yes, she was shot, that's all…"

"I'm glad for your help," Robinflight sneered, dropping him to the ground.

Robinflight's breath echoed loudly in his chest. He looked around.

Selena had been shot, then she had disappeared. There was no helpful trail of blood to show where her location might be.

"Where are you?" He bellowed, "SELENA?"  
There was a second gunshot, but this time is was Robinflight who felt the pain. A bullet scored into his face, splattering blood all over his body. More bullets followed the first. He dropped down and crawled foreword, hiding in the grime.

"Robinflight?" Ben gasped.

Robinflight turned on his side, lying against the ground, to stare at him. Another bullet shot into his upper back. Barely able to move, he fixed his anguished, furious face on Ben.

Anger grabbed him, when he saw the clean man, not a bloodspot on his body, and his pale skin smooth and white.

Robinflight brought a trembling hand to his face; found it covered in blood and grime. How could Ben look so elegant, while he was so dirty, so injured?

"What has been happening?" Ben asked, with wide eyebrows.

Gritting his teeth with effort, Robinflight said in a forced voice.

"This is my life. Welcome to my world."


	8. Chapter 8: Lonely River

_**Chapter 8, Lonely River**_

Two bullets in his chest, and blood seeping across the ground.

He was in intense pain, but he realized dimly that his bullet wounds were not in terrible dangerous places. The one in his face hadn't reached the brain, and the one in his upper back was thankfully in the right side, not the left.

"Robinflight, stand up. Quickly."

He looked up and saw Shadowflight above him.

"I don't thick your shots are bad."

"Yeah…they just hurt."

"It was worse when your wing was shot," Shadowflight snarled.

"Uh…I guess."

Shadowflight swiveled and gave Ben a glare. "What are you still doing here?" she snarled.

Robinflight wheeled around, sprinting away from his mother. The Timers were slowly departing, uncertainly, as if they had not yet received a command to leave.

"Selena….she's gone…" he whispered to himself.

There had been a gun shot, and she had disappeared, right after. Her only trace was a wave of blood on the sidewalk.

Shadowflight was shouting at Ben, stomping her feet, and waving her claws by his face.

Then he left, with a guilty face. Around the building he went and into a car thing, with dark windows and a shiny body. He floored the gas and drove off.

Shadowflight spun around and walked back to Robinflight.

"Where's Selena?" She asked.

"Um…gone."

"Where?"

"I don't know. I all can see is some of…her blood."

He walked foreword, bringing Shadowflight with him. He knelt down beside the blood. It was still dark and wet.

She inspected it. "That's a lot of blood. More then I lost when I was…stabbed in the shoulder…" She trailed away then said, "Let's go."

"But…"

"LET'S GO!" She shrieked. She swiped open her wings, and he followed her dimly. She rose into the air without flapping her wings.

He copied her and they flew off, over the city, fast. Robinflight watched the trees flit by beneath him, but this time he didn't think it was neat. He knew he was lucky to be able to fly, but right now he wished he was a normal person, so the Timer's wouldn't have come, and then they wouldn't have shot Selena.

He spotted their lake before it came into view. He could see blue between the conifers.

Robinflight slowly made himself vertical, and landed lightly. Shadowflight was beside him.

He crawled into the cave. Instantly, Cora leaped up to him and dashed over.

"Robinflight! Selena—she, well, she…left. She just walked off. I tried to ask her where she was going. She was really distant. She said she was going after you. Then she flew off."

"I know. She said that um…"

"Well where is she?"

"She came. I'm not sure what happened. She just…vanished."

Cora followed him into the cave.

"Well, is she coming back? You can tell me!"

"I'd only tell you if you were the Cora before Alexa came along." He said. Cora looked stunned as he curled in a corner. She still stood in the entrance of the den, framed by outer light.

_You've got to be really dense if you don't realize you're hideously jealous of Alexa,_ Robinflight thought to her.

Then he fell asleep.

XXX

And dreamed. He was lying in a parking lot that was swirling around and around. The stars kept falling down and disappearing before they reached the atmosphere.

He sat up. A silvery cat, large and spotted, stood before him, tinted orange. It was thickly covered with black dots. Almost transparent, it swished its long, stripe-ended tail at him. Its eyes had black tear streak lines going down its chin.

"Who are you?" Robinflight asked him, putting out a hand.

"I am your father." Robinflight had only seen his father, Robin, twice, and he approached him slowly, almost cautious of the big cat.

"Once dead, I'm a cheetah in both worlds." He explained. Then he started too bound off, dodging cars and trucks that could not see him.

"WAIT!" Robinflight bellowed. He raced after his father, as fast as he could. The cheetah stopped, turned, and waited for him.

As soon as Robinflight was five feet away, the silver cat turned and bounded on again, Finally, it stopped at the edge of a river.

"What is it?" Robinflight, asked, coming to its side.

"We will need to cross," Robin said, "Wont we?"

"Well, I guess, but where are we going-,"

Robin was not listening to his son. He closed his eyes and two huge, brown eagle wings erupted from his side. He flapped them through the air silently.

"You can fly too?" he asked.

"Both me and Shadowflight were given wings, way before you were born," Robin muttered, opening his eyes, "That's why you have them too."

"Oh…I never thought…"

"Of course you didn't. Now, are we going to fly across this river?"

"I guess…" he muttered.

Robin started to flap his wings, and they cut the air smoothly. Robinflight copied him, and then lifted over the water and onto the other bank.

Robin folded the wings onto his back perfectly, and shot off again. Robinflight bounded after him again.

Robin stopped in front of a little water valley, used for leftover city water. It was lined with rocks, but over crowded with ferns and weeds.

Robin peered through the trees then turned to face him.

"Here is the location of your lost one." He said, turning to Robinflight. He reached out to touch the cheetah, barely an inch away.

Robin flickered and vanished. Darkness shrouded him, and it felt like he was turning upside down. He opened his eyes and found himself in the cave.

Shadowflight peered at him.

"Selena isn't dead." Robinflight gasped. 


	9. Chapter 9: Deathworld Entering

_**Chapter 9, Deathworld Entering**_

"How do you know?" Shadowflight asked.

"Robin came to me in a dream."  
"Was he happy? What happened? Was he alive again?"

"No. He was happy, but transparent. He was leading me to a place, and said "Here is the location of your lost one."

"So-," Shadowflight began, but Robinflight was already standing up to leave.

"Wait-," She tried again. Robinflight took off, racing steadily to the parking lot where he had first seen Robin.

But this time, everything was in a different location. The direct path Robin had taken was not there. More buildings had been added, more cars, different roads…

Robinflight sighed and stared blankly. This was the parking lot where he and Robin had begun, but it was also the one where Selena had been shot.

He stared around. Abruptly, a silver form started materializing in mid air, leaping foreword. But as soon as it appeared fully it started to disappear back into nothingness.

"Robin?" he called.

He started to walk foreword to where he had seen the cheetah appear. He looked around.

Seven feet away, the same thing happened. Robin appeared, then disappeared right after.

Robinflight dashed over, standing where the cheetah had just been.

Seven feet away, he reappeared, doing the same process over. Robinflight bounded up the silver-spirit.

This went on for a while, Robin coming and then diminishing, and Robinflight running after his brief appearances.

Passerby stared at the dark haired boy as eh dashed from one place to another, staring at something they could not see. Robinflight ignored them.

Robin appeared, then dove through the air, disappearing as he went.

This went on for a long time. Robinflight could never catch the cheetah.

The light began to swirl around him. Robinflight looked up. Three leaves were circling in a strange pattern above his head. Then they broke and became trees, falling down and planting themselves beside him. Wolves sprang from the trunks, walking faithfully beside Robinflight as he followed the silver cheetah.

The wolves disappeared, swirling into vicious dragons, with blew fire at him. Lions strained against chains beside him. But Robin was a beacon of light, showing him the way through the terrible attackers that only Robinflight could see.

Finally, the visions died away, leaving Robinflight in the loud, smelly city once again.

He stopped beside the valley from in his dream. Robin appeared and this time lingered. He faced his son, then flickered out.

There was blood, a few drops, going down into dark trees and plants, where he could hear unsteady breathing and a loud drip of something other then water.


	10. Chapter 10: Bloody River, Purely Nothing

_**Chapter 10, Bloody River, Purely Nothing**_

Robin did not return, and Robinflight started to slowly creep down the slimy rocks, his bare feet slipping on the wet algae.

He grabbed the ferns, rooting his hands in. He took another step, but this time slipped hard. Robinflight's hand shot out, grabbing onto the ferns. That was the only thing holding him. The walls of the valley were almost like cliffs, so steep.

He gasped and looked up at his hand. Green, murky water from the fern was seeping between his fingers. He began to slip slowly down.

Robinflight kicked out, digging his toes into the rocky wall. Plant guts and green water were everywhere.

Suddenly his hand slipped. He gave a gasp, whirling around. He was already falling toward the bottom of the valley.

He shouted out, landing in a huge amount of dirty, greenish water. He went under, and shot up to the top. Reeds and bugs tickled his face. He looked up to see that the trees were blocking the stars.

Robinflight took a huge breath, gulping in smelly air. He began to swim foreword, with the slow current. He looked at the water, and with a gasp realized he was swimming in rain runoff as well as sewer sludge. At first he was bugged, but then he got over it and pulled himself onto the slope on one side, his feet in the water, so he could look around.

There was a culvert ahead, with a road going over it. Every time a car went by, water sprayed over the edge of the guardrail.

He decided to crawl into the culvert to avoid being in view of the humans on the road. He did not even try to crawl along the ridge, knowing it was too slippery. Instead he slid back into the river and swam down with the current till the silver tube.

It was long, and Robinflight could almost stand in it. He began to crawl into it. The water was still gushing through it, even faster because the current was narrower. He knelt down in the sludge so he wasn't knocked off his feet.

He searched the bumpy inside of the culvert for anything dangerous. Finding nothing, he crawled foreword to hide better. He noticed dimly that the water was becoming abruptly darker.

Robinflight could hear cars roaring past over him. Whenever one passed, a waterfall of water gushed over both sides of the road, and a few drops got into the culvert.

Robinflight glanced around and gasped. There was another tunnel going off from the wall of the culvert, disappearing into the murky darkness.

He had passed the culvert that was coming off, and now he rested a few feet from it. A tiny trickle of water was coming down from it and going into the main current. Robinflight suddenly realized why the water looked darker over here. The water from the smaller culvert was mostly blood, and it was darkening the main water.

He felt like he had received a minor shock, as he realized that something injured or dead probably was up in the smaller tunnel. Curiosity took over him and he crawled into it. Blood stained his jeans as he crawled on his hands and knees up it.

"Hello?" he called into the darkness. There was no answer.

He continued on. The blood, which had flowing down many different tunnels, was slowly joining together, and Robinflight knew he was nearing the creator of all the blood.

He stopped at a place, where the tunnel broke into five tunnels. Most of the blood was coming from a steep tunnel that was sloping steadily upward.

Robinflight headed into it. A few rats huddled at the edge of the water. Their beady red eyes glared at him as he passed, and they scuttled into tiny, branching off tunnels.

The steel bottom of the tunnel was hard to hold onto it. He was climbing almost vertical, and the current sucked at his limbs, wanting to throw him down.

He gasped and continued up. His claws hooked onto a brake between two sheets of metal used to make the tunnel. He stared into the darkness. The bloody water was no longer gushing down in a river. Now, it was pouring down without a current, just falling from above because the tunnel went straight up.

He stared ahead, shaking his soggy, wet hair from his eyes. With a gasp he continued on, pretty sure that he would find the injured thing ahead.

"Hello?" he called. It echoed for ten seconds before diminishing to silence.

He stuck his claws into the metal, and with a horrid grating noise, it started slipping back down. He snarled and looked around for something to hold. He couldn't fly, the tunnel wouldn't let him open his wings.

He twisted around to look at the wall behind him. It was dotted with screws. Sighing, he wrapped his claw tips around them and slowly started up.

He came to an abrupt bend. He scrambled with relief along the flat surface, glad to be away from the vertical part.

Robinflight stared ahead, into the gloom. He was sure the injured thing would show up soon…

Ahead, he saw light, and scrambled foreword. He gasped as he realized he was underneath the road. A grate was overhead, and

bright white sunlight spilled through, illuminating a patch of the tunnel with light.

It was still a ways away, and Robinflight broke into a half-run. The bloody water was really red now, and with a gasp he realized somebody lay underneath the patch of light. He hurried foreword and stopped. It was a person. They were breathing hard and their eyes were closed.

He gasped. "Selena?" He asked.

Her amber eyes flew open and she stared blankly ahead of her.

There was a bullet hole in the left side of her chest.

Robinflight had found the source of all the blood.


	11. Chapter 11: Help me, Whatever

_**Chapter 11, Help me, Whatever**_

Robinflight grabbed Selena and started to drag her along. He was walking backward, gripping her arms.

"Got to get help…" he muttered. He started descending the pipes, moving as fast as he could.

His wet, slimy hands slipped on her skin, he dropped her; she slumped against the silver wall, her head falling foreword and resting on her chest. She was limp and still.

He staggered back from her. "Robin!" he shouted in anguish, "Where are you? Help! What should I do…Robin!"

His calls found no answer as they echoed around the tunnels.

"Thanks for your 'help.'" Robinflight said in a quieter voice. He started dragging Selena along again. His bare feet kept slipping on the slick metal, one time he almost fell all the way down.

Selena was almost too heavy for him to carry, and finally he dropped her and collapsed onto the floor of the tunnel. Selena slumped against the wall.

Robinflight keeled over, smacking his face on the floor. He ignored the pain.

For hours he laid there, the water running over his head, feeling incredibly cold. In fact, the cold was so immense that Robinflight couldn't feel his hands.

There was a heat on his back.

He sat up quickly, bracing himself for some kind of attack. He whirled around, searching for the hot thing that had touched him. It was not Selena; she was as still as ever.

He watched his black-red claws slide from his fingertips. He felt a burning heat on his shoulder, and he zapped around.

Nothing.

He felt his hair prickle, as if he was being watched, this time he turned around slowly. Robin hovered in the air, in front of him, smiling slightly.

"How can you be dead and hot?" Robinflight blurted out dumbly, to the silver, half-transparent form.

Robin shook his head.

"You wanted help?" He asked softly.

Robinflight nodded. "I'm so weak, and Selena's heavy…"

"I seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." Robin's voice went quieter and quieter as he spiraled away and vanished in the air in front of Selena.

Robinflight snarled; Robin hadn't helped. He reached foreword to pull Selena on, but abruptly her eyes opened. She stared blankly at him for a moment before registering.

"The Timers shot me," she burst out, slowly getting into a crawling position, "As soon as I heard the gunshot I dove into the valley thing, leaving blood behind. I had to pull myself al the way up her, and it was torture, but I had to make sure that the Timers wouldn't follow me…I had left them no body to tell them I had died."

"You didn't leave _me_ a body either." Robinflight muttered.

Selena rose one eyebrow.

"You were seriously well…bad earlier, and now you're like totally healthy…It's like…?" Robinflight said.

"Don't know." She said.

Robinflight had a feeling that Robin had done _something_ to Selena, and he had to admit that his father had been very helpful in the search for her.

They started to crawl through the pipes, and eventually came out in the main culvert.

"Wait—Are the Timers gone?" Selena asked.

"Yeah…" Robinflight said, "I mean, I think so."

She snapped him a mean look. "Whatever."

He shrugged and they searched the rock wall for a way up. Selena pointed out that they could use the ferns, but Robinflight discarded the idea.

"But why not? There's like, nothing else to grip onto…" Selena persisted.

"I used them coming down, and they are so slippery."

"Whatever," She said again.

"ENOUGH WHATEVER!" Robinflight shouted and whished he hadn't.

"Whatever," She hissed, narrowing her eyes. She climbed up the rock wall, digging her claws into the gaps between the rocks until she reached the asphalt.

He followed her, hoping he wouldn't slip on the rocks. They reached the top and started to fly off.

They zoomed over the city, and over the trees.

Robinflight felt rather mad, at least he knew he wasn't speaking to her anymore.

They saw the lake, hidden by trees but illuminated by predawn light. Both coasted silently over it, landing on the ledge outside the cave.

Selena glanced at Robinflight then jumped inside. Robinflight followed slowly. He glanced behind him at the almost risen sun, then crawled into the warm den. Steve and Sylvester were slumped against the wall; Cora lay huddled in one corner. Alexa was stretched out beside Mac. Shadowflight slept in a corner, her head under her wing.

Robinflight lay down in the farthest corner, Selena on the other side. Instantly he fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12: All of a Sudden, Gone

_**Chapter 12, All of a Sudden, Gone**_

Raised voices awoke Robinflight. He opened his eyes slowly and groggily, blinking to get his bearings. Shafts of dark, sluggish light slid across his face. Minorly curious, Robinflight sat up, pushing himself up with his arms.

"No," Said a cold voice loudly, and it rung slowly through his ears, long and drawn out. Robinflight looked around. The sound of someone walking across a stone floor with dress shoes seemed amplified by a lot.

"Why not?" Asked another voice, this too ringing around oddly. It was a girl's voice, not a kid's voice, but close, maybe a teenager's voice. "I thought you wanted him. You told me you wanted him."

The dress shoes stopped. "That was earlier," said the man's voice, echoing loudly in Robinflight's ears. The dress shoes started up again, "I will be visiting H.M.S in a few weeks anyway. I am sure he will have the information I need. You may come." The footsteps faded.

"But-," Started the girl, and stopped. After a few seconds there was a sigh, and the sound of boots got quieter and quitter.

Abruptly something sharp and hard wrenched into Robinflight's chest. He gasped with pain, almost unable to breath. He fell back gasping.

"Wait…" he rasped to the boots. The sound of them had disappeared.

"No." Said the girl's voice, now cold and mean. Robinflight couldn't say anything else, he tried, but all of a sudden there was nothing he could do anymore.

XXX

Robinflight could barely open his eyes; he was in such in intense pain. He tried to rub the pain into the floor, or wait; there was no pain to rub.

He blinked in sunlight, confused.

"Ok, can we stop being silent now?" Came a loud, annoyed voice. Robinflight's eyes blared open and he sat up. He was sitting in the cave, and a few people were gathered around him.

"Um…huh?" He asked.

"Like, you were sleeping for so long!" Steve complained, "And you were muttering in your sleep…it's like, get a life…"

"Whatever." Robinflight hadn't tried to sound like Selena, but she heard him, and looked over sharply. She smirked kind of meanly and hopped out of the cave.

"Well, nothing's wrong anyway." Steve and Sylvester turned away, and Alexa also left them. Robinflight watched their retreating backs, then pressed a hand to where the knife had stabbed him in his dream.

There was a wound there.

XXX

Robinflight was crouched outside of the cave, eyeing some caribou carefully. The setting sun illuminated the forest, making the large creatures easy targets.

Alexa came out and flopped down beside him. "What's up?" She asked.

He jerked out of his careful concentration and stared at her. "Stuff…" he muttered.

"What'cha lookin' at?" she asked, and he pointed to the caribou. She gasped.

"They're big…like REALLY big!" she managed to say in shock.

"I know." They watched the silent grazers for a while, until abruptly the five caribou took off at breakneck speed.

"Hmm…Nice while it lasted!" Alexa shrugged it off.

"Wait…I don't hear wolves and what else would scare them like that?" Robinflight asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you feel like something isn't right…?" He trailed away. Both him and Alexa turned around slowly and saw a huge rock hurtling silently toward them, followed by millions of other, smaller ones.

"Rockslide!" Alexa screamed.

"EVERYONE MOVE!" Robinflight bellowed, his voice overtaking hers. He dove into the cave, screaming about the rocks, and chaos erupted.

"GET OUT AND FLY! Robinflight threw Mac into the air, his osprey wings unfurled slowly, but a boulder hit him between the shoulder blades, and with a scream he hurtled down the cliff side, until he snagged on a narrow ledge, and he hung over it without moving, his face facing up to the sky.

"MAC!" Alexa screamed, she started to run down the cliff side, falling down the vertical side and hitting rocks hard.

Shadowflight swooped from the den. She dove down, catching Alexa by the arms before she hit the water. She swooped up, but now the rockslide was getting bigger, and she was lost in its flood. Robinflight glimpsed her struggling from the rocky mess and flying away, but Alexa was not with her.

Steve raced from inside, saw Robinflight and obediently opened his wings.

"GO!" Robinflight shouted at him.

"I HAVE TO WAIT FOR SYLVESTER!" Steve screamed over the sound of pounding rocks.

"NO! MOVE!" Robinflight pushed him and then gulped. Steve had no wings.

Sylvester exploded from inside, knocking Steve over and gathering him in his arms. Both started flight and were rained on by rocks. They fell, spinning, to the ground and were buried by rocks.

Robinflight felt terror and anger pound against his chest. He fell to the ground as rocks poured down on him, but he copied Shadowflight, going up and up until he fought his way from them.

"Cora…Selena…" He muttered, trying to see through the dust blinding his sight. Robinflight tripped and lost his footing, but his hands found something, and he used all his strength to pull himself up again.

"Robinflight, you need to move." He could feel someone's hands grabbing his arms and yanking him up.

"I can't…see…" He muttered. He received a sharp slap to the eyes.

"Now you can."

It was true, he could now see out.

"Selena?" He rasped.

"Yeah," she said in a softer voice, "It's me."

"Get everyone else," He muttered.

Selena lingered for a moment, obviously considering saying or doing something else. "Ok," she said, then dashed off, into the den.

He followed her into the cave, hoping that there was safety from the rocks in there.

He felt Cora bang into him and he looked around wildly for her.

"Robinflight," she muttered, "Get out now."

He followed her to the entrance, and Selena's commanding voice went after them, "Whatever you do, don't open your wings!" she shouted. Robinflight saw Cora yell a 'yes' over her shoulder.

They emerged once again into the open, and rocks rained down on them. With Robinflight in the lead they ran hard and far.

"WAIT!" Selena went down with a scream. Cora and Robinflight halted, and found her being drowned by rocks. Both grabbed her but to no avail.

"Climb up!" He told her in a yell. She placed her foot on a rock and kicked up hard. She shot out; Robinflight had forgotten how strong she was.

They ran on until the rocks became a light snow of them. Then they all collapsed, unable to go farther.

XXX

Robinflight woke to complete silence. He felt dehydrated and dirty. He turned over and a whole bunch of sand like stuff poured off him. He shook hid head, getting the grits from his dark hair.

"Where am I?" he wondered, searching the blazing blue sky, avoiding the sun that hovered right above his head.

He turned and saw Selena crawling toward him, bushing rock dust off her face. He looked at her, barely registering. Then he stood slowly up and looked around.

On the hills, as far as he could see, there was rock. Lots and lots of loose, grey rock. Where it had come from, Robinflight did not know.

"The rockslide…" he remembered. He glanced down at his arm, finding it scratched in many places from all the falling rocks.

"Oh no." Now he knew it all. "We have to find them," He said to Selena and Cora. Both stared at him, and then followed him silently up the ridge.

He came to the place where the cave had been, and the cliff. There no longer was a cliff. Now it was just a slope of rock, eroding into the lake.

Robinflight collapsed to his knees and started to slowly move a few rocks.

"No," Cora said quickly, "That isn't right. There's too much." He looked up to her and saw her eyes full of pain

"Oh…Ok." He said, slowly putting down the rock. He watched it hit the other rocks, roll for a bit and stop.

He started wandering around the rocks, looking for the lost members of his pack. There was nothing. No sign of anything.

Robinflight saw something, sticking above the ground. He kneeled quickly and looked at it. It was someone's hand, feebly moving.

"Cora! Selena!" he gasped, seeing the arm descending into the rock.

He made a move to grab it, but Selena held him back.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Wait." She said.

The hand twitched then fell back, deathly still.

"What?" he asked. Cora started pulling him back. He whirled around, standing up, defying her pulling. "Why are we leaving it? Somebody's down there and they…" He trailed away helplessly. Selena and Cora had already turned around and were trudging away. Cora beckoned for him with a twitch of his head, but he didn't move.

"No! You're wrong!" he yelled.

Both turned around, surprised.

"You're just wrong!" he said.

He looked back at the hand. It still hadn't moved.

"No," he muttered, "You're right." He followed them away.

Away from his home.

And his pack.

**Wah so sad. Review!**


	13. Chapter 13: HMS

_**Chapter 13, H.M.S**_

Robinflight, Selena and Cora hung around the lake for the next week or so, living in terror of another rock fall. Weakened by shock and starving, they were force to forage off bits of leaves. All the animals they ate had disappeared because of the rockfall. And even if there had been anything for them to hunt, they wouldn't have been able to catch it in there weakened state.

Robinflight lay back, resting on the rocks. Everywhere there were rocks. They were inside the lake and flooding the forest, in fact, a lot of the trees had vanished underneath them.

"Here." Cora dropped some dead spiders beside him, and he sat up quickly, taking them. "What's this?" he asked.

"Dinner." She said. "There were spiders in the rocks."

Robinflight tried to hide his disgusted look and obviously failed.

"Yeah I know it's horrible, but whatever." She said, dropping a few off by Selena.

"Ok…" She said. Cora nodded sympathetically.

"Hey Selena!" Robinflight said to her, "This is 'whatever' food."

She hissed but he saw her grin when she turned her head.

He laughed as he turned back to his spiders.

They weren't too bad actually, kind of musty and dry, but blubbery underneath, which was gross.

Robinflight put his hands into his pockets and found a few things in there.

He pulled them out and looked at them. One was some strips of rock hard, old deer meat and the other was the clipboard he had gotten a while back from the lab with Jack.

The note was still there, attached to the little clipboard. He re-read:

NEW SPECIMEN ALERTED TO THE LAB

Contained in room 7,689 is a complete list of living humans prepared for analysis and full abduction. Find by Dr. Ken T. Retain to alias for final test by Dr. Jack S.

1100100110011010000101101

11001010110110101101

Full gateway to scan one.

Secret enclosed in final test by H. M. S.

Heartbend Medical Services (Forged)

He searched the paper all over again, hoping to see something else. There was only a date, plastered in one corner.

He turned the paper over and peered on the other side.

There was a little address, in the middle of the paper.

Robinflight tore it from the clipboard and read it.

H.M.S

Denver, Colorado

Delaney Rd, number 36

70291

"Hey Selena," He said, moving over to her, "Do you get this?"

She read both sides of the paper and shook her head. "It's something with an address."

"No, its H.M.S's address," Robinflight said, "This is where the Heartbend Medical Services lives."

"They're probably a stupid organization." Selena said, turning away.

Robinflight remembered his dream, where he had been stabbed.

"One person said they were gunna go visit H.M.S." Robinflight muttered.

"Some person where?"  
"In my dream. I wonder who H.M.S is."

"It's HEARTBEND MEDICAL SERCIVES!" Selena said, loudly and impatiently, "It says so on the paper."

"Well…Maybe. But the way the person said it in my dream: "I'm going to go visit H.M.S." Sounds more like it's a person. I want to find out what it is."

"Really." Selena hissed.

Robinflight was already scheduling. "I wonder where Colorado is. According to Alexa, we're in Montana, but where is Colorado to Montana?"

He started to sift through the papers on the clipboard again.

He found a tiny map that he hadn't seen earlier.

"Oh boy! It says Montana on here, and like a few inches below it says Colorado…Denver Colorado! Wow! It say's Rocky Mountains, and the base of the Rocky Mountains are in Montana! That's where we are! And I know how to get to Colorado! We go through the Rocky Mountains. This is too obvious."

Selena was looking at the map too. "Actually yeah! I want to go too. CORA!" She turned and called her over.

She sat down. "Yeah?"

Robinflight reached into his pocket and gave them the hardened deer meat. They fell upon it vigorously.

Selena and Robinflight told Cora about what they wanted to do.

Robinflight leaned back. "Plus, I don't like it here anymore. It's spooked."

He heard both of them stop eating. He looked up.

"What?" he asked.

Both turned back to their meat. "Nothing." They said.

"Whatever." He turned away and pretended to ignore them.

But out if the corner of his eye he saw Cora whisper to Selena.

"Like, a few days ago he didn't want to leave his pack and now he thinks it's spooked. What the heck?  
Selena just shrugged, and Cora rolled her eyes.

Robinflight looked down at his deer stuff. The place where he had been eating was raw and white.

"This doesn't taste good anymore," He said. He threw it onto the ground.


	14. Chapter 14: Sucked, Empty

_**Chapter 14, Sucked, Empty**_

Robinflight awoke, feeling itchy and hot. He found himself lying on the rocks, and the sun beat down on his face.

He stood up. He wanted to leave today, to go to Colorado. They were going to go in the direction of the mountains, the bleak, craggy ones south of their lake.

Selena was still sleeping, curled up underneath the tip of a tree that was just poking through the layer of rock. Cora was awake, she came over to him.

"Wait, Robinflight, I just want to know why you want to know who H.M.S is so badly?"

"Well, I'm actually not sure." He sank slowly to a sitting position. "I just feel like its important somehow, and it means something to me and…us." He said, "And I need to get out of her. Otherwise I don't know." He smiled and she turned away and left, then crouched down, her black hair falling like a curtain around her.

Robinflight shrugged and stood up, as Selena crawled over.

"We'll have to go around the lake. Which way? The way with the forests or the one with the cliff…?"

"The forest way." He said, "I don't want to be by the pack again…"

"I thought so." Selena said, "Anyway, should we bring anything, and if so, what?"

"Um…nothing but the clipboard." Robinflight said. He had stashed it under a rock for safe-keeping.

"Ok."

"And if you can find any food-meat- bring that too."

She nodded. "Ok. I'll go hunting." She shot off, but he was sure she would find nothing.

Cora came over, "Is there anything I can do?" she asked.

"Um…no, I don't think so, except wait for Selena to come back."

They did not have to wait long. Soon Selena came back, carrying some squirrels.

"They were hiding in the rocks." She reported, throwing one to each of them. They put them in their pockets.

"Are we ready?" Selena asked, fidgeting nervously.

"Yeah, but one second."

Robinflight ran a few feet from them, lifted his head to the sky and shouted, "SHADOWFLIGHT!" He waited a second. "SHADOWFLIGHT! SHADOWFLIGHT!"

Robinflight waited, searching the skies, but his mother had not heard him. She had escaped too far.

He walked back. Selena titled her head. "Did she get away?"

"Yep. She flew off over the mountains."

"Well, she knows how to survive, so you don't need to worry about her." Selena said.

"Yeah, but I'd like to know where she is."

They opened their wings and took off, coasting low around the lake, but speeding, trying to cover as much ground as possible.

Rolling hills replaced the forest, flowing by four feet beneath them. The three moved in an ever-revolving flock, sometimes in a straight line, sometimes in a group, and sometimes thirty feet from each other.

Trees dotted the hills, thickening and ebbing, until the three had to gain altitude to fly over another forest. The sun moved with them, and Robinflight checked it constantly.

Finally Cora swerved up to him. "I need a rest." She said.

They had been flying for six hours, and they all were admittedly tired, even though it was an easy flight.

"Alright." He slowed down and they roosted in a soft clearing. Only pine trees surrounded them, and the ground was grassless, hard dirt strewn in pine needless.

Robinflight wiped the sweat from his face and leaned against a tree. Cora was cleaning her feathers, separating them when they had stuck together, so they all got aired out.

"We've still got a long way to go." Robinflight told the two remaining pack members. "We're climbing at a very slow slant through these hills and stuff, but we aren't officially in the mountains yet. So we need to get as far as can right now, because once we're in the mountains, it won't be as easy to fly as this."

"True." Said Selena. "Now, Can we go find some water so I can drink?"

"Sure." He said. He and Cora followed him through the woods. Selena scavenged through mossy clumps of growth, hoping for puddles underneath.

Cora found some mountain run-off, soon to freeze in the coming late-fall. They drank it thirstily.

"Water will be sparser in the mountains," Cora said, "All that rock. I mean, we can eat snow but…It'll be freezing."

Robinflight agreed, so they drank more and then decided to fly for the remaining four hours of daylight they had.

As they flew, Robinflight realized they had been going a lot faster then he had thought. They must have been speeding along at 60 mph.

Even though the hills seemed endless, they were all going upward, and Robinflight realized the mountains were less foggy-blue, and looked clearer and sharper.

The sun had almost set as they reached the end of another clump of trees. They all made the decision to land and sleep for the night.

Selena wanted to sleep in the forest, for cover, but Robinflight knew there was more predators in the woods, so he wanted the open grass. They started to fight, but Cora said to sleep in the hills, because she had found water and a deer family a little ways away.

They all curled up in the grass. Robinflight itched as the bugs crawled over his skin, but he let it slide.

Robinflight had a strange dream. He lay in the grass, and the hazy face of someone peered down at him, unclear and unfocused, and then he was running toward a cliff and jumped. The ground was nowhere in sight, and he screamed as he hurtled into darkness, then he was lying in the grass again, but this time the face was getting closer and closer, pale skinned and dark eyed, but unclear, not human…he screamed, trying to push it away but unable to move his hands, and the face almost touched his before he woke up.

He was gasping and panting, and he blinked in the half light.

"Are you ok?" Selena was peering down at him, standing from above.

"Yeah…" he said, rubbing his forehead. "Bad dream."

"Ah." Selena turned around and walked off. "Anyway, it's half an hour till dawn. We should go."

"Ok." He said and stood up. As soon as Selena disappeared, he searched the grass for the inhuman being who had tried to suck the soul from him.

**Freaky. Leave a review!**


	15. Chapter 15: Can you Kill?

_**Chapter 15, Can you Kill?**_

Robinflight, Selena and Cora ate their squirrels before they flew on, and to stock up for the mountains, they all went and hunted rabbits, because there were thousands jumping around the hills.

Robinflight ran down to a gully where a stream was. He leaped across it and charged over the hill. He spied a brown animal in the grass, and he extended his arm slowly until his fingers grabbed and broke its neck. He then pulled the rabbit's babies and mate from the rabbit's burrow and killed them all. Then he ran back.

They stashed all their rabbits together and they were nine in all. They created ropes from strips of fabric, and tied the ropes around the necks of the rabbits, and then tied the other end to their arms, so the rabbits would swing along beneath them as they flew.

Robinflight took off with the others following. He watched the rabbits bump along the ground and flew a little higher.

Robinflight saw something emerge from over the hill and he slowed a little. It was two men, harboring rifles. They weren't Timers, just ordinary hunters, looking for some kind of prey.

They pointed and Robinflight and raised their guns.

"SCATTER!" He yelled, and swerved backward to the nearest forest. He started banging into trees as he made a wild dash through them, moving as fast as he could to get the hunter off his trail. He could hear it following him in a little vehicle thing with huge wheels.

Robinflight swerved desperately through the trees, dashing through close growing trunks and ducking under low branches. The rabbits hanging from his arms swung violently, and one by one they hit the trees with a bloody splat and left his arm.

He heard the hunter say something, and someone else replied! Both of them were after him.

Robinflight put on more speed, and, spying a large, hollow trunk sticking into the sky, he went up and then slithered, headfirst, down into it. The walls of the wood pressed down on him, and he rasped in the musky air. But he pushed himself on until he was completely inside the hollow tree and then made himself as still as ice.

He heard the men crashing around, searching for him. There voices were loud and frustrated.

Robinflight looked down at his hands, stretching in front of him, still in the shape of the dive he made into the trunk. Something was on it. He looked closer, and saw a whole family of Brown Recluse spiders slowly crawling up his arm. As he watched in shocked, disgusted silence, he saw them on both arms, one his face, crawling around his hair…"AAAAAAHHEEUCK!!" He screamed, yanking himself from the trunk. Strings of poisonous spiders hung off him as he dashed to the nearest body of water and started rolling and slapping and thrashing, anything to get the arachnids off him. But they swam back to him, trying to get on him, and he realized there was an open slash on his arm, cut by a slender stick when he had raced through the forest.

Bunches of spiders were already eagerly feasting on the blood. Robinflight glanced up at the hollow tree. A whole wash of spiders were swarming toward him, all having come out of the solitary holes inside the trunk to eat.

There was no way to get them off him. They were everywhere, and when he shook them off they came back.

Then he realized they looked just like the ones Cora had given him to eat. Without another thought he took a huge handful of them and stuffed them inside his mouth. His eyes watered and he snorted in disgust, but he ate them as fast as he could, stuffing bunches after bunches of poisonous brown spiders into his mouth and eating.

Finally there was only one left, lazily sipping his blood. He popped into his mouth and ate it.

He waited a moment, blinking in minor confusion, then his eyes widened and he threw up three million dead spiders all over the ground.

XXX  
It took moments for realty to come back to him, and then he realized he had pressing matters to deal with: Where were Selena and Cora? And, had the hunters left?

He looked down at the gash on his arm. It was puffy and raw, possibly infected by the spiders. He groaned in pain and started walking slowly out of the woods.

Robinflight felt horrible. His stomach was empty, he had a huge cut on his arm, and he was peppered in tiny spider bites that he was sure were gunna really hurt him, if the spiders were truly as poisonous as he thought.

He walked on, exiting the forest. It felt like his whole body was on fire. He saw a river and ran foreword, kicking out. He landed in the water and sighed with relief, because it was cool and made the pain in his arm ebb.

He came out of the stream and continued to walk. Someone came up over the hill.

"Selena?" he called.

She dashed over and stopped. "What…on earth…?" She asked, staring at his arm.

"Um…nothing." He said.

They found Cora, hiding in an old fox burrow. She came out when she saw them. "Hunters gone?" She asked, and they nodded.

They all had lost their rabbits, so they hunted again, and this time they feasted on what they caught.

Robinflight slept terribly, he was always half awake, and foggy things invaded his vision. Before dawn he heard four gunshots and the yelp of a injured dog.

**Thanks for copying When to Die, Steeltalon. NOT.**

**Please Review!**


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